A German airplane landed at Baghdad's Saddam International Airport Sunday to pick up a sick Swedish citizen, the official INA news agency reported.

The Learjet touched down at 12:20 PM (0820 GMT), becoming the second foreign flight to land at the airport after it was reopened following a 10-year hiatus because of international sanctions, INA said.

The pilot of the jet, which arrived from Turkey with three other passengers, told reporters at the airport that he was to take on board a sick Swedish citizen currently in Baghdad.

A Russian Yak-22 aircraft landed on Saturday carrying an official delegation headed by Moscow's Deputy Emergencies Minister Ruslan Tsalikov, which is scheduled to visit the country for several days.

The UN trade embargo imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait remains in place, but there is disagreement over how they apply to passenger flights, which are not specifically mentioned in the sanctions resolutions.

Until recently, the practice has been for all those wishing to fly to Iraq to inform the UN sanctions committee.

There is, however, disagreement over whether the authorization of the sanctions committee is actually necessary. The United States and Britain say that it is, while France disagrees.

For its part, Iraq rejects any interpretation of the UN sanctions as implying an air embargo - BAGHDAD (AFP)